Nazi reenactor funded by Boehner

House Minority Leader John Boehner’s political action committee gave $5,000 to Rich Iott, the Ohio Republican candidate who has dressed up as a Nazi officer during World War II re-enactments.

The contribution from Boehner’s Freedom Project to fellow Buckeye Iott was recorded on Sept. 22, according to a quarterly report Iott filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.

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House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who is Jewish, has denounced Iott’s participation in re-enactments that feature faux Nazis.

Don Seymour, a spokesman for the Freedom Project, told POLITICO Boehner would make no effort to recoup the money.

Iott spokesman Matt Parker said there would be no reason for Boehner to withdraw his help.

"Rich Iott doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body," said Parker, who sought to distinguish between a Nazi uniform and an SS uniform, which he said is what Iott is wearing in the now-famous image.

The Nazis were Adolf Hitler's party — and became shorthand for the German military under his rule — while the SS was an elite squadron of soldiers and law enforcers responsible for a variety of war crimes.

Iott’s participation in a re-enactment group called Wiking stirred up a wave of controversy over the weekend after an account of it was published by The Atlantic.

Parker says the whole controversy is a ginned-up attempt by Democrats to make a historical re-enactment buff into a villain.

"He’s a good and decent man who’s being smeared by people who want to use it for political purposes," Parker said. "They are worried sick, that they are going to lose this seat, so they would stoop to whatever level it takes even to say that Rich Iott is a Nazi."

Parker acknowledged that the image of Iott in uniform could be offensive — if taken by itself.

"When you look at that picture in context of what it was really about and Rich Iott's history of doing military re-enactments … when it’s taken in context that it’s acting … then it’s really not that offensive," he said.

Democrats criticized Boehner and called on him to apologize for the donation to Iott.

“For the past week, John Boehner has chosen to remain silent about his embrace of this Nazi enthusiast running for congress, now we know why, it turns out he was financing his congressional bid,” said Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “… John Boehner must apologize immediately to the American people especially to our veterans, to women, and to those of the Jewish faith for recruiting all these extremists and fatally flawed candidates.”

Boehner is the only lawmaker to give to Iott in the quarter. The Washington-based PACs of the National Tank Truck Carriers, the National Federation of Independent Business, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List and the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers also donated to Iott.